Our Hand Grinder: A Montessori Teaching Tool

With so many distractions in the world today it’s hard to concentrate on one thing. Our hand grinder is used as a teaching tool in several Montessori schools across the country. It is engaging and helps with fine motor skills as well as concentrating on a single task. The kids get so excited to be able to not just help, but help independently.

If you’ve never heard of Maria Montessori the founder & creator of the Montessori education system… her story is fascinating. She was born in 1870, paved the way and persevered in her endeavors to become one of the first female Doctors in Italy. She then started noticing children’s learning habits and how they soaked up what they were experiencing. She went on to create the Montessori education system and even now there are Montessori schools all over the world. In fact, my Uncle & Aunt believe in this method in educating our children so much so that they currently live in El Salvador and are working there to train teachers in the Montessori curriculum. They have trained many teachers  in person over the years and are also working on training videos so that it will be accessible world wide.

Fun fact… a long time ago in a land far away my dad hand.built furniture and teaching tools for Montessori schools. He sold them all over the USA, we had many a fun family trip to deliver these goods. He & my mom also taught at a Montessori school in Dallas, TX that my Uncle & Aunt founded (and also taught at). Hence my brother, sister & I had several years in Montessori education. A lot of great memories as well as lifelong skills & learning habits came from that time. It’s fun for me to think about carrying on the tradition in our family, in a small way with our hand grinder, that started so long ago with my Uncle, Aunt, dad & mom.

If you are interested in learning more about the Montessori curriculum I’d love to get you in contact with my Uncle & Aunt.
On a random side note, I saw this recently… ‘I don’t like to think of it as Thursday, I like to think of it as Friday Eve.’ ;) So here’s to a Merry Friday Eve.

Remember to #keepgrinding, but don’t ever forget to take a coffee break or two. Even if your ‘coffee break’ doesn’t include coffee. :)

Just wanted to let you know that my husband and I love our new coffee mill! It’s wonderful for our French press and we are so happy to now have the perfect mill for our home in Costa Rica. This mill is perfect for us! (Camano Coffee Mill)

~Janie